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Last night I got an exclusive sneak preview of the Christmas update to Killing Floor, in which the familiar range of nightmarish mutants are replaced with an even more disturbing group of gingerbread men, murderous elves, fiery snowmen, and super-powered death Santas. It’s an impressive piece of work, and also a little strange, and comes with free stuff for TF2 players. More on these things, to the slightly off-key tune of Jingle Bells, below. (Also, a seasonal trailer.)
Killing Floor, in case you happen to be unfamiliar with it, is an Unreal-based mod that found itself evolving into a full-blown commercial release. That commercial release was – if I recall correctly – a little overshadowed by Left 4 Dead, which was a shame because Killing Floor is a strong game with a pace and character all its own. The heart of the game is, essentially, fighting off waves of mutants while you make your way around a map, traveling between “shop” points, which open up for weapon purchases between rounds of combat. It’s totally co-operative, so it’s about killing the monsters together, and keeping everyone alive. On the Hard setting, that was actually fairly tricky, as I was to discover.
So anyway, I was able to drop in on a game with Tripwire, who are gearing up to launch this Christmas event, for free, for everyone who owns Killing Floor. I suppose it’s a kind of temporary free DLC. The overhaul of the game for seasonal horror is pretty comprehensive. There’s an entirely new map, Evil Santa’s Lair, which is bedecked in grotty grotto gumph, Christmas lights, trees, presents, and snow. Into that level are injected a series of familiar, yet different, Killing Floor mutants. The crawlers have been decked out with bells and antlers, the Fleshpound is a Nutpound, the stalkers are Santa’s helper ladies, and the patriarch boss monster, well, let’s just say he’s now the daddy of Christmas. The new monsters are beautifully done – amazing for a time-limited one-off event like this. (Although I should think they will roll out next Christmas, too.)

I had riot in last night’s session, playing through three games on the new map. The balance of the game is, of course, precisely the same, because it’s a reskin. But the new map is entertaining, and KF itself has had a few tweaks since I last played it. Six of us battling away around the level was great, even if I was the newbie journalist without much grasps on the finer points of the game. Taking to the enemies with a fire axe, because you’ve burned through your ammo, feels splendidly heroic. KF’s weapons remains splendidly solid too. It’s perhaps the player models that make it for me, though, particularly the Grenadier Guard in his bearskin hat. There’s even a new Santa player model, a rough-looking faker who wouldn’t look out of place on “Santa – no!”. All in all, it could be the best single Christmas comedy event ever.

But there’s actually more to this, too, because there’s even a crossover with Team Fortress 2. The pyro from TF2 will be appearing in Killing Floor as a new player model (although this one seems unambiguously male) and there will be a new hat unlocked for TF2’s Pyro – a gas mask and tie from KF, as you can see below. Presents!

The Killing Floor “Twisted Christmas” Event will be running from December 14th to January 4th. It’s probably worth an RPS Game Club event, or something, right? Okay then.

41 Comments

So, I have to buy this, too. One question though, what the hell does it say on the end of the gas mask intake? Something something “in Russia”?

‘Nother question, actually. Any idea if the game is gonna get other deal, or do I have to shell out 20 bucks to get in on this? The complaints about the bullet time were the one thing keeping me away, but if I get to shoot dyslexic Santa…

Looks like a Russian GP-5 gas mask, just textured to look like leather. I own one, and I can tell you that’s what it looks like. Eye holes are a little big, and it doesn’t cover the whole head- the back of the neck is uncovered- but beyond that it’s a spitting image.

That mask is super uncomfortable, though. I think I’ll stick with my M61 for zombie-killing, thankyouverymuch.

Ah.. I’ve had Killing Floor for some time and not actually played it. This is a good reason for me to get on it. Actually I think it’s been over a month since I shot any zombies at all, which is ridiculous. I shall be rectifying that post-haste. Maybe afterwards I’ll play some Killing Floor – hahaha!

I do think it’s kinda cool that Valve are allowing other games to unlock content in TF2. I understand that it might seem a bit gimmicky and some people are upset about the whole thing. I admit that from a purely selfish perspective I wish that TF2 didn’t have a “store”, especially for items which actually affect the way you play the game – but I understand why they’ve done it.

In terms of adding hat unlocks to other games, though, that’s fantastic. Especially games which stand up very well on their own merits as opposed to seemingly just being a vessel to unlock items (Poker Night, I’m looking at you). I think it has the potential of introducing great new games to people that simply wouldn’t be interested in them otherwise.

Imagine – a die-hard TF2 player wanting a new gas mask and ultimately becoming a huge fan of Killing Floor! Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Truth be told, I left TF2 a while back (or rather it left me, one of the updates pushing my ancient PC beyond the cusp of playable performance) and as a relatively partial observer, it is a little bemusing* to see the game slowly becoming the means by which Valve coerces the completionist within every gamer to buy every thing with a price tag on Steam. Gotta catch em all, hat-maniacs!

* And I really do mean a little. It’ll take an awful lot more for me to be de-icing the windshield of the Angry Tank.

It’s a post of me completely missing everything. I heard no jingle bells and I still really, truly hate killing floor and want valve to strike it from my list. The newest problem was that I heard no jingle bells, even in the trailer? Sounded more like the dance of the sugar plum fairy and then KF’s usual tripe soundtrack.

Might re-install it and give it another go. I played KF for a bit, but apart from the iron sights and the bullet time (which I found quite enjoyable), it just couldn’t compare to my beloved L4D in terms of gameplay, and more importantly, fun.

And it was ugly. So, so ugly. Which it doesn’t appear to be in this video. Has there been some graphical updatery going on? (I’m not one of those graphics > gameplay folk, but if I’m not really enjoying the game to begin with, the ugly gets too much).

I did the relevant fiddling with the graphics at the time, yes, and it was still ugly. It does look better in that video though. To be honest I think the intended look/design of the game is off-putting to me somehow. I find Deus Ex prettier and less offensive to my eyes than this *shrugs*

I did play KF many times with a few mates, and also on servers with some really decent folk, in terms of friendliness and ability. I still didn’t find it to be something I felt really compelled to play. I never came out of it with those special kind of experiences and moments that I got in abundance playing in L4D. The adrenalin-pumping, story-creating kind of moments, the ones you tell your friends about.

If someone could make a bullet-timey, iron-sighted L4D mod, I think I’d be a happy little thing indeed.

(I actually don’t like to compare L4D and KF – I don’t think its fair since they’re very different games, but it just happens to be the other co-op thing at that time I was playing and really enjoyed).

it it drops to $10 or $12 as a special on steam sometime in the next week or two ill pick it up. seems entertaining enough but i just recently got l4d2 so my zombie hunting craving is reasonably subdued for the moment.

Sadly, there isn’t much to the movie that isn’t in the trailer – more humour, and there is a bit of a twist – but you get a general impression of all the big events there. It’s certainly a fun ride of a movie, but it isn’t as out and out crazy as I’d hoped.

One thing I find really interesting/neat about Killing Floor is that it’s designed with long-term progression in mind. The higher difficulty settings are literally impossible for newer players, but as you go up the ranks on each of the classes, you’ll gain that little extra edge you need to survive the harder challenges.

A level 0 Berserker starts out with the ability to move slightly faster with a knife than the other classes, and not get grappled. A top level Berserker moves like the Doom Guy, soaks up melee damage like it isn’t even happening and spawns with a chainsaw.

Sometimes I really wish I could enjoy Killing Floor, then I remember that stupid bitchfight with the original creator because he couldn’t handle that I didn’t like that KF 2.0 (back when it was still a UT2K4 mod) had thrown out everything that made 1.0 special and he spent at least two YEARS trying to troll me, getting his sycophants to join in.

You should probably think about why you care. Because apparently winning some years old argument on the internet is important enough for you to bring it up whenever RPS posts about Killing Floor…

I wonder if Alex Quick remembers this alleged torrent of abuse he poured upon your innocent, undeserving self? I suspect the answer is “no”, so most likely you are indeed the only person in the world who actually cares. Time to let it go, man.